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1802 Factory Act - Applied principally, though not exclusively, to protect the health and morals of apprentices in cotton and woolen mills. Includes brief details of regulations.
1833 Factory Act - Attempted to establish a normal working day in a single department of industry or textile manufacture. Includes brief details.
1844 Factory Act - Reduced the hours of work for children between eight and thirteen to six and a half a day. Includes brief details.
1847 Factory Act - Limited the hours of work to sixty-three per week from the 1st of July 1847, and to fifty-eight per week, from the 1st of May 1848. Includes brief details.
1850 Factory Act - Slightly increased the weekly working hours from fifty-eight to sixty, while rendering the enforcement of the definite working day practically secure. Includes brief details.
1867 Factory Act - Restricted the hours during which children, young persons and women could work in any manufacturing process in an establishment which employed fifty or more persons. Includes brief summary.
1874 Factory Act - Reduced the working schedule a half-an-hour daily in textile factories. Includes brief details.
1891 Factory Act - Prohibited employment of women within four weeks after confinement and raised the minimum age at which a child could work from ten to eleven. Includes brief details.
Abraham Whitehead - Cloth merchant from Holmfirth who joined the campaign for factory legislation. Includes interview with Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee.
Ages of Workers - Includes table showing ages of male and female workers in cotton mills in Lancashire in 1833.
Alexander Dean - Employed as an overlooker at Duntruin Mill. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on June 29, 1832.
Andrew Ure - Known for scientific writings with his Dictionary of Chemistry, and New System of Geology. Traveled around the factory districts of Britain and published The Philosophy of Manufacturers in 1835. Includes brief excerpts from his work.
Apprentice Houses - Provided living accommodations for children who received board and lodging, and two pence a week for their factory work.
Archibald Buchanan - Partner in a company that owned several cotton mills in Scotland. Includes interview by Robert Peel and his House of Commons Committee on April 25, 1816.
Arkwright, Richard - Inventor of a spinning frame and a carding engine for the textile industry. Built factories in Lancashire, Staffordshire and Scotland and employed many young children. Includes excerpts from articles about their employment. 1732-1792
Average Height in 1836 - Includes figures for children ages 9 through 16.
Benjamin Gomersal - Piecer at a worsted mill. Includes interview by William Dodd in 1842.
Charles Aberdeen - Started work at the age of twelve in a cotton factory. Sacked in April, 1832 for signing a petition in favour of factory reform. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on July 7, 1832.
Cotton Mills in 1830 - Lists towns, number of mills and persons employed.
David Bywater - Began work at age 13 in steaming department of a factory. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on April 13, 1832.
David Rowland - Child who worked as a piecer at a textile mill in Manchester. Includes brief interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on July 10, 1832.
Deaths in Leeds - Covers the period from 1780-82 and 1813-30. Includes ages and percentage of deaths.
Dr. Edward Holme - Physician in Manchester who investigated the health of children employed in the cotton-factories. Includes brief interview by Lord Kenyon's House of Lords Committee on May 22, 1818.
Dr. Henry Hardie - Investigated the health of children working in seven local textile mills. Includes brief interview with Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on May 26, 1832.
Edward Baines - Played an important role in the opposition to factory legislation, universal suffrage and government control over education. Includes excerpts from his autobiography. (1774-1848)
Eliza Marshall - Began work at the age of nine in a textile factory. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on May 26, 1832.
Elizabeth Bentley - Began working at the age of six in a flax mill. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on 4th June, 1832 regarding her working conditions.
Factory Accidents - Includes summary of report commissioned by the House of Commons in 1832 and excerpts from interviews.
Factory Inspectors - Appointed by government after passage of the 1833 Factory Act to check the age certificates of working children. Includes brief excerpts from reports.
Factory Pollution - Features summary of report of major health problems of young workers.
Frances Trollope - Novelist who wrote about social issues and produced 40 books. Includes short biography, excerpts from her writing and portrait. (1780-1863).
Gillett Sharpe - Overseer of the poor in Keighley. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on June 6, 1832.
Hannah Brown - Child worker who began job in a mill at the age of nine. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and House of Commons Committee on June 13, 1832.
Henry Hetherington - Published a series of radical newspapers and punished for his activities. Campaigned against child labor, the 1834 Poor Law and political corruption. Includes excerpts from writings about his viewpoints and activities.
Henry Orator Hunt - Radical candidate for the Westminster constituency and advocate for annual parliaments, universal suffrage, the secret ballot and repeal of the Corn Laws. Includes excerpts from his speeches and newspaper reports.
Henry Thomas Hope - Tory who opposed parliamentary reform and factory legislation. He was defeated in the 1832 General Election. Includes excerpt from his speech made in the House of Commons on March 16, 1832.
James Heywood - Represented Lancashire in the House of Commons between 1831-1857. Was against legislation on child labor. Includes excerpt from speech made in the House of Commons on March 16, 1836.
James McNish - Began employment in the textile industry at the age of seven. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on June 15, 1832.
John Allett - At age 14 began working in a textile factory. Includes his interview with Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on May 21, 1832.
John Birley - Factory worker from Derbyshire. Account of his life as a child worker at Cressbrook Mill appeared in The Ashton Chronicle on May 19, 1849. Includes excerpt from his writing.
John Cam Hobhouse - Became the leading advocate of parliamentary reform and factory legislation in the House of Commons. Includes excerpt from his speech made on May 15, 1821.
John Doherty - Leader of the Manchester Spinners' Union. Strong opponent of child labor and helped form the Society for Promoting National Regeneration, which advocated an eight-hour day for all workers. Includes excerpts from his speeches.
John Fielden - Founder member of the Todmorden Unitarian Society, a religious group active in the social reform movement. Leader of the reform movement in the House of Commons and campaigned for a ten-hour work day. Includes excerpts from his writings.
John Wood - Owned the most successful worsted spinning business in Britain in the 1820's. Became involved with the problems of child labor and campaign for factory reform. Includes excerpts from interviews.
Joseph Hebergram - Began working as a child at the age of seven in a mill. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on July 7, 1832.
Joseph Rayner Stephens - Established the Ashton Chronicle, a newspaper that advocated radical social reform. Campaigned against child labor and supported the founding of the National Miners' Association. Includes excerpts from newspaper articles.
Lewis Hine - Established what became known as documentary photography. Traveled throughout the United States to photograph children working in factories. Campaigned to establish better safety laws for workers. Includes brief biography and excerpts from writers about his work.
Lord Althorp - Leader of the Whigs in Parliament and the House of Commons. Opposed the idea of a ten-hour day for children factory workers and led the opposition to Michael Sadler and his supporters in the debates that took place on this issue in 1832. Includes excerpts from speeches and letters.
Lord Ashley - Leader of the factory reform movement in the House of Commons. Helped set up the Children's Employment Commission and piloted the Coal Mines Act, which prohibited women and children from working underground. Includes excerpts from speeches.
Lord Francis Egerton - Tory who was strongly opposed to factory legislation. Includes excerpt from his speech made in the House of Commons on May 9, 1836.
Manchester's Children Factory Committee - Group of children who supported factory legislation for a ten-hour working day in 1836.
Mary Bucktrout - Began working at the age of fourteen in a flax mill. Includes her interview by William Dodd in his book, The Factory System Illustrated.
Matthew Crabtree - Began work at the age of eight in a factory. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on May 18, 1832.
Michael Armstrong: Factory Boy - Novel published by Frances Trollope in 1840. Main message of the novel is that individual philanthropy is an inadequate solution to the problems of industrialization.
Michael Sadler - Served in the House of Commons and advocated decrease in children's working hours. Interviewed doctors experienced in treating people who worked in textile factories and published his report in 1833.
Michael Ward - Doctor in Manchester for thirty years. Includes interview by Lord Kenyon's House of Lords Committee on March 25, 1819.
Physical Deformities - Includes photo of cripples in the yard of children's home in London and interviews by Michael Sadler's House of Commons Committee.
Piecers - Term given to youngest children employed in textile factories whose job was to lean over spinning-machines to repair the broken threads. Includes excerpts from narratives about their work.
Punishment in Factories - Describes abuse suffered by children. Includes interviews about their working conditions.
Richard Carlile - Publisher of a radical newspaper, The Republican. Served prison term for violation of seditious libel laws. Strong supporter of women's rights and campaigned against child labor. Includes excerpts from his writings.
Richard Oastler - Leader in the factory reform movement. Strongly opposed universal suffrage, trade unions and was a warm supporter of the rigid class structure of the early 19th century. Includes excerpts from his writings.
Robert Blincoe - Child laborer, apprentice and adult operative. His biography, A Memoir of Robert Blincoe, was written by John Brown in 1828. Includes excerpts from the story.
Robert Owen - Established four textile factories in New Lanark and was a strong advocate of factory reform. Formed a new community in New Harmony, Indiana based on his socialist ideas. Expressed his views in his journals, The Crisis and The New Moral World. Includes excerpts from various writings.
Robert Peel - One of the Britain's leading industrialists whose cotton factory employed over 15,000 workers. As member of the House of Commons, he helped pass legislation limiting the hours of pauper children, apprenticed in cotton mills, to twelve hours a day.
Samuel Downe - Began work at the age of ten in a factory. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on June 4, 1832.
Samuel Smith - Doctor in Leeds. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on July 16, 1832.
Sarah Carpenter - Began work in a factory at the age of eight. Includes account of her life from an excerpt in The Ashton Chronicle.
Scavengers - Term given to young children who picked up loose cotton underneath working machinery. Includes brief newspaper articles and illustrations.
Short Time Committees - An article about the committees formed by workers to promote John Hobhouse's 1831 bill restricting child labour.
Stephen Binns - Began work in a local textile mill at the age of seven. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on June 2, 1832, when he was working as an overlooker in a factory in Leeds.
Thomas Turner - House surgeon and apothecary of the Manchester Workhouse. Includes interview by Lord Kenyon's House of Lords Committee on June 1, 1818.
Titus Salt - Owner of one of the most important textile companies in Bradford. Built an industrial community called Saltaire and improved working conditions. Became active in politics and supported adult suffrage. Includes excerpts from newspaper articles.
Wages in Lancashire in 1830 - Includes chart with ages of workers, male and female pay.
Weight of Factory Children - Includes table showing the comparative weight in lbs. of factory and non-factory workers, ages 9-15.
William Blizard - Worked for twenty years as a lecturer on surgery and anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on May 21, 1832.
William Bolling - Tory who was opposed to parliamentary reform and factory legislation. Includes excerpt from his speech in the House of Commons on May 9, 1836.
William Dodd - Wrote books about his experiences as a child worker in which he became crippled and had his right arm amputated. Includes excerpts from his writings.
William Hutton - Quaker who became the most important bookseller in Birmingham. In 1791 he was the victim of the religious riots that took place in the city. Published several books about his childhood working experiences.
William James - Representative of Cumberland East in the House of Commons. Includes excerpt from his speech made on March 16, 1832 in which he defended employment of young children.
William Rastrick - Worked as an overlooker at Shute's Silk Mill in Watford. Includes interview by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on July 23, 1832.
William Whatton - Manchester doctor who examined workers at Peter Appleton's factory. Includes interview by Lord Kenyon's House of Lords Committee on May 25, 1818.
William Wilson - Doctor in Manchester. Includes interview by Lord Kenyon's House of Lords Committee on May 29, 1818.
Workhouse Children - Term for pauper apprentices who signed contracts that virtually made them the property of the factory owner. Includes excerpts from letters and newspaper articles.
Working Hours in Factories - Includes summary of legislation proposed in 1832 to reduce number of hours and survey conducted by doctors in 1836.

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